I posted this over at sailing anarchy, but I'm reposting here to get some different perspectives.
I'd like to improve the clew attachment for the spinnaker on a Nacra Infusion. At present I have a continous sheet, with the port sheet tied to the clue, running back to blocks on the tramp, across the tramp to the starboard blocks, around the forestay and then tied to the spinnaker clew. This set-up is serviceable, but there are two bowlines tied around the clew. In some wind conditions the bowlines will get caught on the forestay momentarily as I go through gybes.
I have seen some other F18s at regattas who have modified their sheets so that there is an ~1ft tail that ties to the clew, there is then a Y-split spliced to the tail that splits off and goes to the port/starboard blocks. The spliced Y-split can easily run along the forestay during gybes without getting caught on anything. I'm not sure what sort of splices are invovled with this, so if someone has some suggestions and pros/cons, they'd be most welcome.
Another alternative that was suggested is to have the tails of my sheet be some thin dyneema/specta (by splicing ~1-2ft of spectra to the ends of my existing sheets). Knots tied in the thin line would be much less bulky, so there'd be very little to catch on the forestay. What do people think of this idea?
Thanks
Why tie a bowline I just use a stopper knot and have had no issues
Thanks
I like this idea best and it's similar to what I've done. I took it step further by terminating the spec with eye splices then I use a short piece of 2.5 mm spec to tie the sheets to the clue.
I use a continus loop. The two bitter ends are butted and stitched together. Then on the middle of the sheet I spliced in a pig tail that ties to the clew. Nothing to catch on the bridle.
Hi have an infussion if you have the standard spinnaker sheet it wil be a single 12 core and I found it difficult to splice direcly to the 3mm vectran, the guys at the nacra championships stiched the vectran to the 12 core about 15 cm and you can then decide on how much 3mm you want to use to tie on the clew with a bowline, I also have a 8mm dubble braid spare sheet which I exposed the core and eyespliced, great practice but not nessisary, that I tye with a 1 foot y piece and a ball.
I don't tie the ends to the clew. I use a system I've seen on a 49er.
Use double braided line, extract some core in the middle of your sheet sufficient to make a small loop. Work the cover back in place. You now have a loop of core outside of the cover. Make a cow hitch by feeding the loop in the clew and passing the two lose ends inside it.
Feed the lose end into the various blocks. Where they meet on the trampoline cut the excess cover and splice a tight loop on one side. To connect the two ends pass the lose end into the loop and make a stopper knot (49ers use a skiff knot, I hate those as they are hard to open so I use a figure of 8).
Thanks for the input everyone. I still haven't decided 100% which option that I'll go with, however I'm liking David Ingram's suggestion. Once I've got something put together I'll post a response to let people know how it goes.